Last night we gathered to do nightly devotionals. It is always a time of sharing our lives. Frequently cultural adages are a part of telling stories and the meaning must be translated to follow along. This was the case as our Director Becky shared a story. In the story a student was getting close to the teacher for the purpose of getting ahead of others. She called what the person was doing sip sip. One of the girls says, “Atè Melissa do you know what that is? It’s like what the mosquito does, sip sip.” This was kind of amusing to me as mosquitoes are annoying little creatures. Then curiosity peaked and everyone wanted to know if we had a saying we used in the US for this kind of thing. Innocently I reply,”we call it brown nosing”. Naturally the response is,”Atè Melissa why brown nose?” 13 inquisitive faces turn towards me. That was the moment I realized the vulgarity of this particular adage. At this point I couldn’t stop laughing. Eventually the conversation moved on without me and I was released from the horrors of creating a mental picture that would relinquish appetites. In the time since, I can’t help but keep wondering what other adages I’m using that stir up disturbing mental pictures…
